Odds & Ends: Adaptec and deep sleep; NEC drops printers?; clipEdit bug?; RF interference with Cinema display?; more

Adaptec SCSI and G4 deep sleep: a follow-up Rami Levy writes: "I noticed your previous item regarding the Adaptec SCSI driver and deep sleep mode on the new G4s. Adaptec has posted a driver update on their Web site specifically to fix the 2906 adapter. I had encountered the deep sleep problem on my Dual G4 533, which was fixed after I installed the driver update."

NEC drops printer lineup? It appears that NEC is getting out of the printer business. Howard Seemann writes: "I recently bought a 1450N for use on my iMac. I was unable to print anything above 600 dpi or access any of the built-in fonts, even though the printer was advertised as 1200 dpi with 136 fonts. I received this note from NEC tech support: 'NEC has decided to discontinue all of their printer product lines. This is why there are no updated drivers.'"

Update: A reader suggests trying the Adobe driver.

clipEdit 2.1.3 Bug? Brandon Fisher writes: "To duplicate, open clipEdit and enter some text in the empty clipping (I normally use some type of styled text). Save this file anywhere you want, and close clipEdit. Open the clipping from the Finder to verify that it saved correctly. Now, open clipEdit again. Immediately open the clipping you just created to edit it. Type another line of text, and then save the clipping. Close clipEdit. When I go back to the Finder and try to open the clipping again, I get a message stating, "This clipping has no text, picture, or sound. The clipping is accessible though clipEdit itself, usually."

Update: The problem has been confirmed. C. P. Fernandez received this note from the program's developer: "This is a known issue with clipEdit that has been present for several versions of clipEdit, and there doesn't seem to be any particular pattern to when/if it will occur. We have tried solving this problem on numerous occasions but it appears to be a bug in REALbasic, the program which we used to create clipEdit. We have been in touch with REALSoftware about this."

Two-way radio and cell phone interference with Apple Studio Display? Roy Long writes: "Has anyone encountered problems with cell phones or two-way radios close to the Apple Studio displays? My two-way radio can consistently turn off my Mac by interference with the on/off button on the front of the current 15" studio display. My colleague has similar problems with her cell phone, but instead of a shutdown her mac goes to sleep."

Update: David Crandon points out that MacInTouch also has coverage on this issue. They have published a user report that states: "Apple admits to a known problem related to the touch sensors used in the new display models." It appears to us that using Apple Cinema Displays in environments where two-way walkie talkies are used is problematic.

Network Assistant 4.03 Freezes IE 5 Print Preview Orwell Kowalyshyn writes: "I have found that Network Assistant 4.03 causes the Print Preview function in Internet Explorer 5 to freeze. This is on a system running Mac OS 9.1 with the latest updates." Update: At least one user reports not seeing this symptom.

PageMaker does not delete temp files? Michael Long writes: "When using Adobe Pagemaker on Mac OS 9, temporary files are stored and never deleted. They pile up until you suddenly can't get your computer to recognize the system. The files need to be deleted manually: to locate them search for files containing the name ALDTMP." We have not confirmed if this is a new problem or part of the longstanding issue where Mac OS 9 does not empty the contents of the invisible temp folder. [Note: we have previously covered this issue, including< various work-arounds. It is an OS issue and was supposedly fixed in OS 9.1.]

Google buttons follow-up We previously posted a link to these Google Buttons that help speed access to Google. In a follow-up, Dale Gillard points out this Web site that contains a collection of similar Bookmarklets for other sites. Bookmarklets are simple Javascripts embedded in a URL link.

iBook Power Cord updated We have added several additional observations from readers to yesterday's item on shorts in the iBook power cord. Evidently the problem affects a number of users, including G4 TiBook users, and we have received several reports of similar problems with the Apple Optical Mouse.